Through the first few songs, I kept swapping between channels 101 and 835 and found that you could actually hear the words of the songs properly on TVE.
Tsk - get your eyes tested. You were turning the kettle on and off...
After the comments in the HIGNFY thread, I was quite happy that it was MY problem, DAS.
However, tonight I was COMPARING the BBC audio with that of TVE and found the Spanish channel FAR superior, regardless of what state MY hearing is in.
I just wonder if anyone else found the same.
Perhaps Spain do not broadcast in Nicam stereo as i have noticed that Stereo broadcasts without the surround sound on can sometimes sound loud. i.e. music loud and words faint. I have the advantage (through the fluke inability of setting things up properly) of receiving digital TV in stereo via my scart socket and also on a different channel in mono. i listened to it in mono and I could hear everything much clearer. this is only a theory and i don't pretend that i know the answer but this may be one feasible explanation.
After the comments in the HIGNFY thread, I was quite happy that it was MY problem, DAS.
However, tonight I was COMPARING the BBC audio with that of TVE and found the Spanish channel FAR superior, regardless of what state MY hearing is in.
I just wonder if anyone else found the same.
Perhaps Spain do not broadcast in Nicam stereo as i have noticed that Stereo broadcasts without the surround sound on can sometimes sound loud. i.e. music loud and words faint. I have the advantage (through the fluke inability of setting things up properly) of receiving digital TV in stereo via my scart socket and also on a different channel in mono. i listened to it in mono and I could hear everything much clearer. this is only a theory and i don't pretend that i know the answer but this may be one feasible explanation.
Well I think it shows our European neighbours out to be the narrow-minded, shallow, superficial and pretentious people that they actually are.
Who gives a s**t about the Euro? The EU Constitution? Iraq?! It's got f**k all to do with politics, it's about the
music
!
I think it's very sad that the contest no longer has anything to do with the music. And I have to say that once again anyone here from Cyprus or Greece should hang their head in shame - you shouldn't have even voted in a music competition when the music was clearly the last thing on your mind.
My 12 points tonight go to Cyprus - but that's because Lisa Andreas (sp?) really did blow me away. A fantastic song which thoroughly deserved the first prize, but I imagine the poor girl was totally overlooked by her Grecian neighbours.
Still, not bad for the UK considering the Iraq Photos scandal going on right now - and a great performance from James Fox tonight. Although I can't help feeling that if we'd pulled our troops out this week we might have done a damn sight better...
Through the first few songs, I kept swapping between channels 101 and 835 and found that you could actually hear the words of the songs properly on TVE.
Tsk - get your eyes tested. You were turning the kettle on and off...
I agree that the sound on TVE was
louder
than via the BBC. Whether the mix was any better I doubt, as the EBU feed a single full-mix output (clean of commentary) to each broadcaster, to which the broadcasters add the audio from their commentator and the phone number captions.
TVE may have used additional compression used in the mix to force the sound to be more "commercial radio"... if you know what I mean.
The sound mix from Turkey was much better than during the semi-final, but I though some of the camera work and directing was rather rough. Some acts certainly had a lot more thought put into the direction than others and I really feel that the excerpts of the songs that were reprised during the voting sequence were chosen deliberately to make some somgs sound better than others... the bit they used of Greece was terrific ... compared to the bit they used for Ireland for example.
As for the result ... well I'm glad the Ukraine won compared to Serbia-Montenegro, but I was appalled by the outrageous voting (as usual).
TVE may have used additional compression used in the mix to force the sound to be more "commercial radio"... if you know what I mean.
This was probably the case - for the unitiated, compression's what makes some radio stations sound "louder" or enchance the sound to give them a "signature sound." The best example of compression in this country is that of Radio 1, although I must admit Radio 2 piled on the compression for the ESC tonight. The best example of audio compression on the TV is VH1 - listen to how it sounds "different" from the othe rmusic channels.
Well I think it shows our European neighbours out to be the narrow-minded, shallow, superficial and pretentious people that they actually are.
Who gives a s**t about the Euro? The EU Constitution? Iraq?! It's got f**k all to do with politics, it's about the
music
!
I think it's very sad that the contest no longer has anything to do with the music. And I have to say that once again anyone here from Cyprus or Greece should hang their head in shame - you shouldn't have even voted in a music competition when the music was clearly the last thing on your mind.
My 12 points tonight go to Cyprus - but that's because Lisa Andreas (sp?) really did blow me away. A fantastic song which thoroughly deserved the first prize, but I imagine the poor girl was totally overlooked by her Grecian neighbours.
Still, not bad for the UK considering the Iraq Photos scandal going on right now - and a great performance from James Fox tonight. Although I can't help feeling that if we'd pulled our troops out this week we might have done a damn sight better...
Spot on mate! Interesting to note that the last time we won in 1997 Tony Blair had been elected just two days before promising better cooperation with our European neighbours. Seems to me that if we were to join the Euro currency before the next contest and declare our love for everything European, we would win by landslide results next year. At the moment if we had the best song anyone had ever heard anywhere in the contest, we still wouldn't win, especially when the Balkans, Scandinavians and ex Russian states all voting for each other.
Urgent changes are needed to make the voting fairer.
1) What the hell was the 36 countries voting all about? If you are relegated then that's it!
2) Secondly, all songs should be presented in numerical form rather than country. Only the country of relevance (i.e Performer currently singing) knows the origin of that particular country so you would vote for the song rather than the country. Any country found cheating on this point such as leaking songs to other country's prior to the contest, would be disqualified.
At the end when the scores are in and votes are counted (and computer copies to the judges to prevent changes) all numbers are changed into the country name. That way the songs would be judged on the music and performance like it should be.
3) The Semi Final should be scrapped as this can give an unfair advantage to songs that get through to the final. Why should these songs be allowed to be performed twice when the songs in the final are only performed once? this is hardly fair. To get through to the final then a country should invest in the contest heavily such as france, Germany, Spain and the UK or enter a selection process where elimination is based on geography. For example, why have eight balkan countries and six ex russian countries when you could have Italy, Luxembourg etc instead.
These are just my ideas. What does anyone else think?
